Larry Bird giving it to DePaul…

OK…this should end the 6’8” 205 lbs Adam Morrison @ Gonzaga vs. 6’9” 220 lbs. Larry Bird @ Indiana State debate…head to head the stats in college look like this:

Bird Morrison.
FG% 54% 51%
FT% 87% 76%
PPG 30.3 19.5
RPG 12.3 5.3
APG 4.4 2.1
SPG 1.5 0.7

So Bird was bigger, a far superior scorer without the benefit of the three point line I might add, more efficient from the floor and line, twice the rebounder and passer and defender…if that’s not proof enough here’s a list of their college accomplishments:

Bird: Sporting News College Player of the Year (1979), Naismith Award winner (1979), John R. Wooden Award winner (1979), The Sporting News All-America First Team (1978, 1979), Led Indiana State to the 1979 NCAA championship game against Michigan State, Led Indiana State to an 81-13 record, including a 50-1 record at home, Holds 30 Indiana State records, including most points (2,850), steals (240) and rebounds (1,247) Graduated as the NCAA's fifth all-time leading scorer (30.3 ppg)…he scored in double figures in 93 of 94 games, tallied 40 or more points 15 times and recorded six triple doubles.

Morrison: was named to the WCC All-Freshman team and was an Associated Press All-America selection as a soph…

So…end of debate…while not quite…let’s compare their NCAA debuts…Morrison had 10 points and 5 rebounds in a loss to St. Joseph’s…Bird had a triple-double with 31 points, 18 rebounds and 10 assists in his debut with the Sycamores, an 81-60 win over Chicago State…there enough said…

I know Detroit is the best team in the world right now after they dismantled the Spurs in San Antonio last night…but really, are they that good or are they also that lucky…why do I say this well, has any team stayed healthier than the Detroit Pistons over the last 3 years?

Stayed up late to watch the Kobe and LeBron show last night…terrific game with Kobe scoring on 3 consecutive long jumpers in the last 90 seconds with LeBron hanging all over him to win the game for the Lakers 99-98…Lamar Odom was sick with 20 points, 10 rebounds and 9 assists, which is not easy to do with Kobe taking all the shots…LeBron missed a contested 17 footer with time expiring to win the game, after missing a free throw to tie it seconds earlier…of course, if the Cavs hit some free throws, they were 14-23 (61%) for the game, they win it easily…

The Suns beat the Warriors 112-99 last night with Steve Nash collecting 16 assists…how amazing is Steve Nash? Here are his assists totals for the last 10 games: 16, 13, 10, 19, 6, 22, 10, 13, 16, 12…that’s 14 assists per game and the only player on his team who’s an all-star is Shawn Marion…if this keeps up when Amare Stoudamire comes back he may average 20 assists a game…

For posterity: There will be a lot of hype around the Texas Western Miners with the release of "Glory Road" …but it bears remembering that even though this was the 1st all black starting five the 1963 team from Loyola University of Chicago won the NCAA title with four black ballplayers on the court throughout the game…and they beat the 2 time champion University of Cincinnati Bearcats who were going for the three-peat…

Knucklehead of the month award goes to: Orlando Magic SG Steve Francis…Francis' refusual to re-enter Wednesday night's Magic-Seattle SuperSonics game led the team to suspend the guard indefinitely, The Orlando Sentinel reported Thursday on its Web site. The newspaper reported that according to team sources, Francis refused coach Brian Hill's decision to send him back into the game with 3:22 left and the Magic trailing 103-87. Stacey Augmon went into the game instead for Hedo Turkoglu, who had fouled out. That capped a stretch of games in which Francis had complained about the team's offense and appeared disinterested during play , leading the Magic to finally take action, according to the report.

1) Mark Heisler of the LA Times celebrates all things King James

The NBA - Coming of Age

At last, the all-time great turns 21! If you want to know how much the world has speeded up, LeBron James celebrated his birthday in a manner worthy of a modern prodigy, dining with 65 friends and relatives in a private room in the House of Blues in downtown Cleveland before going downstairs to rap with Lil Wayne and party with a crowd of 1,000 who paid from $50 to $300 to attend. A part of the proceeds was earmarked for charity; no one said what the other part was earmarked for. If he became an adult two weeks ago, he grew up long before that. At 21, he was a three-year NBA veteran with 4,649 points, more than twice as much as anyone had ever scored by then (Kobe Bryant had 2,254, Kevin Garnett 2,144.) At James' current average of 30.6, he'll break Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's record of 38,387 — at 34. If he were to play to 42 as Kareem did, James would be looking at something around 50,000, even allowing for a decline to a sedate 20 a game after 35. Of course, we're getting just a tad ahead of ourselves, but no one ever arrived with James' hype, let alone lived up to it. In the NBA, where awe is usually withheld until someone wins something, he's already a folk hero, like Paul Bunyan. "He's a freak of nature," Boston Celtic Coach Doc Rivers said. "He would be an All-Pro in football. And I don't even know what he plays, but whatever he wants." At the 2003 pre-draft camp, six months after James' 18th birthday, he was measured in bare feet at 6 feet 7 1/4 inches, 245 pounds. He already was carved like a Greek god and capable of playing three or four positions, or just about anywhere he wanted to in the NBA too. "If he wasn't born in the United States, I'd say he's 25 or 26," Clipper Coach Mike Dunleavy said. "But he's from the United States; he was born in Cleveland [actually in nearby Akron]. "Even if he had parents with great, unbelievable foresight that the guy is going to be a great, superhuman basketball player, they couldn't hide him for more than two years. They couldn't hide him for five. If they said he's 1 and he's really 5, I think you might be able to tell. He's not Baby Huey, you know what I mean? "The guy's legit…. He's incredible. I mean, his size and that speed and everything that goes with, it just seems like it's almost impossible." James is the unquestioned leader of a Cavalier team that has the second-best record in the East. Of course, he was their leader from the moment he showed up, at 18. Not that he ever imagined it any other way. "Oh yeah, I feel like my teammates look at me as the leader of this team," James said. "And, I mean, that's always what I've been to any team I've been on and that's a leader. Yeah, I do, to answer your question…."I don't think [it was strange] because I've been doing it so long. I've been a leader of a bunch of basketball teams. Even at a younger age, my teammates looked for me to make plays and looked for me to lead and to help them. And I've been able to do that." This is your basic James interview, a matter-of-fact statement of supreme confidence. Little personality leaks out, although James has another persona when no one's around and that one, at least, acts 21, as when he plays with the fancy toy cars that zoom around the halls of Quicken Loans Arena. He has a sense of humor too. In a recent game, he complained about being hacked on a shot to referee Steve Javie, who asked how he even got the ball to the rim. Smiling, James flexed one of his big biceps and pointed to it. The hard part is figuring out whether he's the Cavaliers' leader, their ward, or both. At Christmas, when everyone wanted the new Xbox, Drew Gooden joked, "LB [James' nickname] has got that but he doesn't play that stuff. He's 40." "He's wise beyond his age and he understands what it takes to get wins," said 29-year-old Damon Jones, who was the veteran assigned as James' counselor in the 2003 rookie transition program, "and that's all that matters in this game." Of course, when you come up the way James did, appearing on the cover of Sports Illustrated as a junior at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School, you grow up fast. His coach, Dru Joyce, who took the team on a national tour, was vibrating like a tuning fork by the middle of James' senior season, but James loved it. "Everyone looked at it like it was crazy but I didn't feel it," James said. "I didn't let it bother me. It didn't bother my teammates. I didn't let it bother my teammates because they knew it wasn't just about me and I couldn't do it without them…. I've never wanted to be isolated from anybody because of my personality. I love being around people. For me to be isolated had never entered my mind." He's being modest. The hubbub was totally about him and he noticed, occasionally yelling, "King James!" after dunks. Sneaker companies flew his mother, Gloria, around the nation. Magazines vied to tell his story. Cable TV networks showed his games and picked up more when they drew big ratings. The Hummer he drove to school one day was ruled to have been acquired legitimately, by a bank loan to Gloria, but he had to sue the Ohio high school association to finish the season after he was suspended for accepting two retro jerseys. A subsequent suit by a producer who had hoped to do a documentary on James showed the family had gotten $100,000, starting shortly after his sophomore year, which was then repaid. James handled it the only way one can, retreating into an inner circle that's still with him, made up of old friends, sometimes called "the Four Horsemen," including former high school teammate Maverick Carter. James says things have never died down and it's still fun. Despite speculation that Nike, which signed him to an unheard-of $80-million deal, would push him to one of the coasts and the Knicks and Lakers holding their breath, he announced he was fine on the coast of Lake Erie and would sign an extension this summer. There's no way a young man goes through what he did without changing, but James still looks unfazed and works tirelessly. Dunleavy said his jump between his first two seasons "was the biggest change I've seen almost in any player." James still has the same incredible feel for the game that wowed NBA scouts from the time they first saw him at 16. His shooting, which improves every season, is now at 50%; he gets his 30 points on a modest 21 shots a game. "I just hope that one day people will think I was one of the best players to ever play in this league. Ever," James recently told ESPN magazine. "I know that'll take titles though. When I think about the best players in the league, I think of the guys who've won championships, guys like Tim Duncan, Kobe [Bryant] and Shaq [O'Neal]. "Of all of them, I like Kobe. His knowledge of the game and his killer instinct are what make him so tough. He's great with the ball and the things he can do offensively are unbelievable. I don't think I have an instinct like Kobe where I want to kill everybody." Of course, Bryant can be seen as a role model in a lot of ways. He lived this dream before James did and it's never quite what anyone thinks it'll be. James is a king, all right. It took high-level negotiations for ESPN magazine to get that interview, which was part of a package promoting Disney's "Glory Road." Disney, of course, is no minor player in James' world, bankrolling the NBA as one of its prime broadcasters. Nevertheless, the Akron Beacon Journal reported James had been boycotting the magazine since high school, upset by its profile on him. It was like Michael Jordan putting the freeze on Sports Illustrated for its "Bag It Michael" cover when he switched to baseball, after which SI spent years sending emissaries to plead with him to reestablish relations. It's not a simple world for your all-time greats. It's getting more complex all the time, just as this one gets greater.

2) Bill Simmons of ESPN.com’s Page 2 sticks the needle into Doc Rivers:
Doc Rivers stinks as an NBA coach. After watching him butcher my favorite team for 15 months and 134 games, I feel pretty comfortable making that assessment. On the surface, Doc seems fine. He always dresses nicely, his interviews are good, and his "Come on, guys, let's go!" clap ranks among the best in the league. When his team blows a winnable game -- which happens often, by the way -- you can always count on him to look sufficiently disappointed, almost like how Tony Almeida looks on "24" whenever Jack decides to disobey him. Doc has that look down pat. And if you weren't paying attention, you would almost think that he wasn't the problem here. Well, I think he's the problem. And here's why I care ... There's a decent chance that the Celtics could trade Paul Pierce within the next six weeks. I don't want that to happen because you can always find another head coach, but you can't always find another Paul Pierce. Still, the "Should we trade Paul?" question has been lingering over this team since November, when it became apparent that Pierce was heading for a career season on a subpar team. Playing his heart out every night, playing the most efficient basketball of his career, Pierce stands out the same way Tom Hanks stood out in late-'80s movies like "The Money Pit" and "Turner and Hooch." Back then, you always felt like Hanks could do better, that he would do better. Same with Pierce. Pierce rarely forces anything, leads by example and does it with a smile on his face. During crunch time, where most franchise guys are looking to make the biggest shot, he's just as likely to grab a big rebound or take a crucial charge. As late as last spring, it seemed like the rigors of the league had beaten him -- just another young star who made too much money too soon, took everything for granted, trusted the wrong people and couldn't handle the burden of carrying his own team. Now he's one of the best all-around players in the league, a franchise player in every sense. Meanwhile, he's surrounded by mostly overmatched young players and wildly overpaid big men, as well as the only coach in the NBA who refuses to settle on a nine-man rotation. And that's what worries me. One of these weeks, Pierce will push to play somewhere else. In NBA vernacular, this is called "Pulling a Vince" -- if someone dislikes his current situation, the collective bargaining agreement allows him to sabotage that same situation and keep getting paid until his team trades him for 40 cents on the dollar. (Note: This is the single worst quality about the NBA right now; seeing Vince making game-winning 3s in Toronto for the opposing team makes me want to shank somebody.) Pierce has more pride than Carter, who proved to be an opportunistic weasel with his immediate resurgence in New Jersey, but that doesn't mean Pierce couldn't inadvertently sabotage his own trade value. When a reporter broached the "Would you welcome a trade to a contender?" question after a devastating loss to Dallas on Monday, he seemed to welcome the idea. At least for a day. That leaves the Celtics with two options: A. Trade Pierce now. I mean, RIGHT NOW. Get what you can, whether it's Luol Deng and picks from Chicago, Corey Maggette and Shaun Livingston from the Clippers or whatever. If they can convince Isiah to take Pierce and the Mark Blount/Raef LaFrentz/Brian Scalabrine/Dan Dickau "Salary Cap Poison Package" for expiring contracts and Channing Frye, even better. B.Fire Doc Rivers and see if the 2005-2006 Celtics could be salvaged with a competent coach. I vote for Option No. 2. You can always find another coach. You can't always find another Paul Pierce. Then again, I'm not running the team. Which brings me to the real point of this column ... The Doc Rivers Special is not a TV show or variety hour. It's not a DVD or a compact disc. It's not something you can order at a breakfast diner -- although if a diner DOES decide to name a dish after Doc, I hope it's the egg-white omelette with bacon and cheese. The egg-white request says, "I'm trying to eat healthy." The bacon and cheese request says, "I don't care about eating healthy." Put together, those two intentions make no sense. Well, neither does Doc Rivers. And after 15 months of watching him coach, four words have emerged to describe any night in which the Celtics lost a winnable game only because of their coach: The Doc Rivers Special. For instance, my father attended Friday night's home defeat to the Hawks, who lack a passable NBA point guard and don't have a single rebounder on the team other than Zaza Pachulia. They should NEVER beat anyone decent on the road. So the Celts let them hang around for three quarters, then switched to zone in the fourth so the Hawks could shoot open 3s (they were 11-for-19 for the game). Meanwhile, Al Jefferson (6-for-7, 17 points) sat at the scorer's table from the 6:30 mark to the 1:30 mark -- amazingly, there wasn't a single stop in play, and even more amazingly, Doc wouldn't call a timeout to get him in -- while poor Raef LaFrentz limped around trying to cover Al Harrington (who couldn't guard Jefferson down low if he was allowed to use a two-by-four). We even had two 24-second violations down the stretch, a Celtics staple over the past two seasons. All in all, it would have been an astonishing defeat if we hadn't already watched something as ugly at least 25 times over the past 15 months. The next morning on the phone, my Dad deemed it yet another Doc Rivers Special, adding that Doc was battling the flu, but the fact remained, "Even when Doc feels good, he doesn't know what he's doing." Now, my father couldn't coach an NBA team. Neither could I. But we have watched enough games over the years, especially in person, to distinguish the difference between a well coached team and a poorly coached team. The Celtics are poorly coached. You can discern this with the naked eye; you can discern this through a variety of statistical ways. Regardless, the local media doesn't seem to care -- there hasn't been a relevant writer covering the team since Jackie MacMullan. Casual Boston fans don't care, not when the Sox and Pats continue to keep banging out playoff appearances. Die-hard Celtics fans seem torn between blaming Doc and blaming GM Danny Ainge, who tied up the team's salary cap through 2007 with untradable contracts. Well, you know who cares? Me. I don't want Paul Pierce to leave town for even 60 cents on the dollar because his team is underachieving. Just compare Doc's season to Phil Jackson's yeoman effort in Los Angeles. Nobody has done more with less. Much like Rivers in Boston, Jackson has one superstar (Kobe Bryant) and one above-average talent/head case (Lamar Odom), but he is saddled with 10 other below-average players who can't be remotely trusted. But Jackson has his fake system in place, and he pretends that everyone has a stake in what's happening (when they don't), and then everyone gets out of the way and Kobe gets 40-plus possessions a night and looks like the prohibitive MVP favorite (even though he's a complete ball hog and a suspect teammate). Did you ever think Jackson would tailor his coaching style around the egocentric talents of one player, allowing him to hog the ball and disregard his teammates at almost all times? Isn't that the absolute antithesis of everything Jackson was about? Still, it's working because ... A. It's the only way the Lakers can compete; B. Kobe is an inherently selfish guy and wants to win this way, so Jackson knows that Kobe will kill himself on the court to make this work; C. Jackson doesn't care -- he's coaching the team only because they pay him a lot of money and because he's whipped; and D. There's an illusion of team play in place (the triangle, a set rotation, role players at every position), so none of the Lakers realize that Kobe is the wolf from "Teen Wolf" and they're basically the "Other Guys." Well, you remember what happened in "Teen Wolf." The other guys eventually revolted, leading to the climactic scene when Scott Howard refuses to turn into the wolf for the championship game, then looks like a young Bob Cousy for four quarters (even though he can't dribble without looking at the basketball). With the Lakers, Kobe continues to show up dressed like the wolf and everyone else seems happy to be there except for Odom (a mortal lock to flip out soon). And that's only because Jackson's greatest skill has always been his ability to rally his team around a common goal, even when he's deceiving them in the process. They aren't a team, they're an entourage. But it's working. At least so far. What would happen if Doc Rivers coached the Lakers? He would be playing 11 guys, juggling rotations, urging Kobe to share the basketball, blowing close games, using an offense in which Chris Mihm and Kwame Brown were forced to make decisions in the high post, telling the press things like "We gotta cut down on the turnovers" ... and everyone would be miserable. Unfortunately for Doc, the L.A. Times has writers like Tim Brown and J.A. Adande covering the team -- they understand basketball and would see right through him. In Boston, where nobody understands or cares, Doc could linger. (And linger. And linger ... ) So how do you identify when your team has a bad coach? It's not as difficult as you think. Take last week's Celtics-Bobcats game in Charlotte. The Celtics shot 57 percent, the Bobcats shot 40 percent ... and the Celtics won by three points. On paper, that makes no sense. Well, the Bobcats grabbed 17 offensive boards. That's a lot. More important, they turned the ball over only five times and forced 23 Boston turnovers. That's ridiculous. The end result? The Bobcats attempted 100 shots (compared to 70 for the Celtics) and 35 free throws (compared to 31 for the Celtics), giving them an astonishing 32 more possessions during the game. If the Celtics shot anything less than 57 percent, they would have lost. Of course, after the game, Doc told reporters, "Turnovers frustrate me more than anything. We just don't value the ball." Poor Doc sounded like the parents in that MTV "True Life" special about kids moving to New York, the ones who paid their daughter's rent, gave her a free credit card and money every month, then flipped out when she started going on spending sprees. What the hell did they expect? The same goes for Doc -- when you don't bench people for dumb turnovers, and when you're mixing and matching lineups like a hungover college kid picking a starting eight for his weekly fantasy hoops team, do you really think everyone will play well together? Eight categories show if your NBA coach is in over his head. Call it the Bad Coaching Index: 1. Lousy record in close games - "Close games" means "any game with a final margin of five points or less." In those games, the Celtics are currently 5-11 ... although that record doesn't possibly convey how many dreadful games the Celtics have blown in the last 3-4 minutes. Somebody on this planet (where are you, 82games.com???) needs to come up with stats to determine things like "double-digit leads blown in the fourth quarter," "crunch-time field goal percentage," "24-second violations in the fourth quarter," "botched two-for-one possessions at the end of a quarter," "number of games in which your coach accidentally ran out of timeouts" and "number of times your final play of the quarter caused your fans to scream obscenities and throw a remote control." If these stats existed, the 2005-06 Boston Celtics would be seen in an entirely different light. I promise you. 2. Too many turnovers - The Celtics average 16.6 turnovers a game ... only the Knicks (17.0) are worse. Well coached teams take care of the basketball. 3. Too many offensive rebounds allowed - The Celts grab 10.0 offensive rebounds a game (26th in the league) and give up 12.2 (24th) for a differential of minus-2.2 (only Phoenix is worse). Well-coached teams don't give up second chance points. 4. Not enough winning streaks - Given the rhythms of a six-month season, even decent teams should peak two or three times per year, when players start clicking together, everyone's healthy and you strike the right scheduling quirk. Statistically, it's almost impossible for this NOT to happen, like if you kept flipping a coin and it showed tails one time, heads the next, then tails, and that just kept happening. If it's not happening, there's absolutely no rhythm to the season. Of course, the Celtics are 14-21 ... with a high winning streak of exactly two games, which happened just once. Keep in mind, Pierce and Davis (the best players on the team) have played every game. And according to ESPN.com's strength of schedule index, through their first 35 games, the Celtics played the second-easiest schedule in the entire league, facing opponents with a collective winning percentage of .485. What happens when the schedule gets tougher or Pierce suffers an injury? Take a guess. 5. Opposing 3-point percentage - This category shows whether you're giving up too many wide-open 3s -- well coached defenses like the Spurs and Pistons rotate well and contest open 3-point shooters. Of course, the Celts rank 23rd in this category. To be fair to Doc, some Boston players (Jefferson in particular) rotate about as fluidly as Kenny Mayne on "Dancing with the Stars" last week. But it's still on his watch. 6. Lousy record on the road - Poorly coached teams usually get eaten alive away from home. In a related story, the Celts are 4-13 on the road. Only the 3-15 Hawks are worse -- yup, the same Hawks who won handily in Boston on Friday night. I will now stab myself in the neck with Salim Stoudamire's afro pick. 7. Lack of a consistent rotation - The single biggest sign of a bad coach: Someone who can't settle on an eight-man or nine-man rotation. NBA players need consistency. They need to play together for prolonged periods. They don't like looking over their shoulder every time the horn blasts. They don't need a coach whisking guys on and off the court for four quarters, especially a young player battling to maintain his confidence. Of course, Doc can't stop tinkering with his lineups -- in the Dallas game on Monday night, Doc played all 12 guys on the roster in the first half. Who does this? Seriously, when have you ever seen that work? Poor Al Jefferson played 28 minutes against the Hawks on Friday night ... five days later, he played six. Hey, he's only the future of the team. Let's keep yanking him around. (Note: In that second Hawks game, Scalabrine played a whopping 28 minutes because he was doing a good defensive job on Harrington, including all but 83 seconds of the second half. In the previous 11 games, Scalabrine played 37 minutes total. I should also mention that he has a crew cut and a beer gut. Really, you don't want to give Scales a longer breather in the second half when he's more maroon than a college kid in Cancun who fell asleep on a pool chair? Thanks to Doc Rivers, these are the nagging questions I deal with three times a week.) 8. Downright stupidity - It's the little things that makes the 2005-06 Celtics so frustrating to follow. Like Rip Hamilton getting a wide-open look with 0.8 seconds remaining to sink a buzzer-beater. Like nobody calling a timeout with six seconds to play in Golden State, trailing by two, leading to an out-of-control Pierce turnover to end the game. Like my buddy House calling me after attending the Wiz-Celtics game on Saturday night just to ask me, "Why didn't Doc go offense-defense with Delonte West and Marcus Banks down the stretch when Delonte had five fouls and you needed to foul?" ... followed by me answering, "Um, Doc doesn't understand the concept of offense-defense." Like the fact that the Celtics are so consistently atrocious at defending pick-and-rolls, opposing teams don't even bother running other plays anymore. Like a set offense revolving around uncoordinated big men (Blount, LaFrentz, Kendrick Perkins) perched on the high post and looking to find cutters near the basket. Like all of the botched two-for-one possessions at the end of quarters, or the predictable offense down the stretch that basically consists of "Post Paul up 20 feet from the basket and let him create." Like my Dad calling me just to say, "Yup, that was another Doc Rivers Special." Anyway, those are the eight categories in the Bad Coaching Index ... and poor Doc fails all of them. Doesn't that mean that this current Celtics team is underachieving? He's not a great game coach. Young players don't seem to improve with him around (either in Boston or Orlando). So what's left? Why are we going through the motions here? If it were up to me, the Celtics would keep Pierce and fire Doc, stick Danny Ainge on the bench for the rest of the season (after all, these are his guys), see whether anything changes, then move in a different coaching direction this summer. Believe me, I'm not asking them to spend six million a year on the next Larry Brown-type free agent -- if anything, I wish they hired a coach like Bobby Finstock from "Teen Wolf," someone who rolled the ball out for practices, played the same six guys every game and dispensed wisdom like "never get involved with a woman with a tattoo of a dagger on her body." With Finstock at the helm, the Celtics would be a .500 team, maybe better. He wouldn't overcomplicate things. He'd play his best five guys as much as possible. In crunch time, he would call plays for Pierce and ignore everyone else. And the fans would love him. See, it's not that hard to coach an NBA team. You need nice suits. You need a voice. And you need to keep it simple. Doc Rivers only does two of the three. And that's why he needs to go.

3) Chris Mannix of SI.com reports on the ongoing schooling of Devin Harris as an NBA PG:

Harris goes to school - Mavs' sophomore learns the art of playing point guard

Devin Harris sits quietly inside the cramped quarters of the road locker room at Madison Square Garden. Players and reporters alike are passing through, creating a commotion akin to a Fifth Avenue clearance sale, but Harris' eyes are focused on what's in front of him. For hours before every game the Dallas Mavericks backup guard watches game film, analyzing opponents, searching for weaknesses he can exploit. And he thought his education ended when he left Wisconsin. It's been a breakthrough season for Harris, who after being selected with the fifth pick in the 2004 NBA Draft had the normal rookie discombobulation compounded by a midseason coaching change, not to mention his attempt to escape the label of being the player brought in to replace Steve Nash. "Last year was tough," says Harris, his eyes never averting from the monitor 15 feet from him. "With the situation we had here, it felt like right after I learned one system, I had to learn a new one." Harris, of course, was referring to the playbook used by former Mavs coach Don Nelson, who drafted and groomed Harris before resigning last March and handing the reigns to neophyte Avery Johnson, who had retired as a player a mere five months earlier. No one knows the point guard position better than Johnson, who ran NBA offenses for 16 seasons and won a championship ring with San Antonio in 1999. The position is regarded as the most difficult to learn in the NBA, with veterans like Chauncey Billups often taking four or five years to adapt. "It's like learning a foreign language," admits Harris. "It was hard -- it's still hard. Five or six years [to learn] sounds about right, but it takes even longer than that to master. The elevation of Johnson, a Larry Brown disciple who played 47 games under Brown with the Spurs in '91, meant that Harris would be tutored by one of the game's fiery floor generals, a concept hardly lost on the second-year player. "I know Coach expects a lot from me," says Harris. "I feel it every day. I'm starting to become accustomed to it because, well, I know he will never be satisfied." One can argue Harris has exceeded even Johnson's lofty expectations. After averaging 5.7 points and 2.2 assists last season, Harris has blossomed as his game and attitude have begun to mirror his coach. In Dallas' first 35 games Harris averaged 11.0 points and 3.2 assists while giving a glimpse of his even more promising future. In a win over San Antonio in November, Harris poured in 20 fourth-quarter points while sinking a franchise record 8-for-8 from the field. Those 20 points were more points than he had scored in any game the previous season. "Devin understands the game better this year," says Johnson, who often engaged in one-on-one's with the 22-year-old Harris during practice last season. "He's honed in on what he does well, he penetrates, he's a playmaker who attacks the basket, and he's probably one of our better perimeter defenders, which I place at a premium on this team." Sound like Johnson is spinning a lot of sunshine? Let him finish. "I do expect more from Devin," Johnson confesses. "I want him to do more within the confines of his game. He knows I don't like the turnovers and I want him to be able to quarterback this team." To quarterback, you must first get off the bench, which could come sooner rather than later for Harris. With Jason Terry's contract expiring after the season, Harris is poised to take over in the starting lineup. Just don't expect him to lobby for the position. "It's not about starting," says Harris, the insistence in his voice rising to the point where you actually believe him. "It's about being productive. I'm not starting, but I'm finishing a lot of games. To me, that's more important. ***Buzzer-beaters - Five predictions to start the New Year: 5. The Knicks, winners of five straight as of Wednesday, will make the playoffs. Before you call accuse me of jumping on the bandwagon, remember I called this months ago. 4. Paul Pierce will be not be traded. I don't know where these rumors are hatched, but there's no way is Celtics GM Danny Ainge that crazy. Trading Pierce would set Boston back five years. 3. The Heat will lose in the second round of the playoffs. Call me crazy, but the chemistry on that team is too screwed up. This postseason will call attention to the importance of role players. 2. Ron Artest will go to the Clippers or he will sit out the season. Tragic as it may be for Artest to effectively forfeit two prime years of his career, Indiana isn't going to give him away. Artest for Corey Maggette is the only potential deal left that makes sense. 1. Chauncey Billups will win his first MVP award. There is no one more deserving. And there's not a nicer guy in the league.

4) Tony Mejia of CBS SportsLine.com is trying to help some folks out:

An attempt to aid those who need assistance

Sometimes things are easily forgotten. Often, I need to write myself notes to pick up milk and paper towels or even remember to ring someone I need to talk to for a story. Be it on the fridge or over on the PC, the reminders are helpful and serve to keep me grounded. Being the good Samaritan that I am, I've decided to share my little system with those in the NBA that could most use these aids. While nearly everyone could utilize this type of assistance, the seven individuals I have in mind would frankly be lost without it. Here then, is my little contribution to better the world. Dear Damon Jones, it's reality check time. Your act was amusing in Miami, what with the sunglasses at press conferences and the shtick as Shaq's sidekick. However, whether you want to embrace it or not, the fact is that you have a new home, the permanent stop that has eluded you your entire career, and you're alienating the fans there? Are you that clueless? Mired in a shooting slump, Jones covered his ears to avoid hearing Cavs fans' cheers when he finally connected. "If you're going to boo, then boo, don't be fair-weather," Jones said. "If you're going to be behind us when we win or when we lose, then you have to be behind us when a guy is going through a tough stretch. I'd rather not be applauded anymore." Taking ourselves a little too seriously, aren't we? This is the same player who pouted about not starting, staging a media boycott when no one really cared, and who has now fallen on his face when pressed into the lineup due to an injury to Larry Hughes. Over the past seven games, he's 6-for-38 from the field, and all but five of the misses have come from 3-point range. That's not too good when you're the self-proclaimed "best shooter in the world." Now remember, this isn't piling on and kicking a man while he's down. It's reminding him to relax and display a little humility. "That word is not in my vocabulary," he said recently when asked if he was in a slump. This of course came a few days before admitting that he's "officially in a slump." Stop the presses! Seriously, D.J., have you lost it? In a comedic twist of irony, this slump has coincided with the announcement of a shoe endorsement deal with Chinese apparel brand, Li Ning. "It was a situation where I didn’t have a shoe contract coming into the year, and I was searching around, and I felt that being different, as I am, I thought it would be a good move to market myself in a different light. They felt with my personality and my glamorous looks that I could bring a little pop to the brand," Jones said. "I got billboards all over China. I got wax sculptures. I’m an icon. I’m global. Who’s that global around here, except LeBron James?" He's kidding, of course. I think. Please, for goodness sakes, come back down to earth. Dear Ron Artest, you didn't learn during your first prolonged absence, so please, the note you should write to yourself is to stop and think before you act. Are you going to take notice after this latest period of sitting out? Stop trying to be bigger than the game. Stop sabotaging your reputation. A phenomenal player should not be so troubled. There should not be sentences uttered that start, Ronnie is great but ... Understand? So you think you could score more? Whoop-tee. No basketball-savvy individual, as most GMs and front office personnel are, is going to offer you more money simply because you're averaging 24 points per game instead of say, 18. You do so much more on the court that your value is already through the roof. All you do by opening your mouth is devalue what you do. Stop. Think. Dear Kevin Garnett, pull an Artest and demand a trade. The Wolves don't want to deal you, they adamantly claim, but if you give them a nudge, maybe they'll think twice and be more accommodating. Quite frankly, you play for an organization that needs to be rebuilding and instead is trying to stubbornly push forward with a mediocre talent base. Minnesota is never going to reach an NBA Finals, which means you're never going to reach an NBA Finals. You're reaching the big 3-0 in May, and odds are you'll be celebrating it on an island rather than a basketball court because Minnesota will have long been eliminated. Already you have too much of a burden on your shoulders, and no one in the front office has done anything substantial to lighten it. Charles Barkley and Karl Malone managed to get their ways to the brink of the Promised Land even though they failed to win a drink. Do you envision even getting that far, or is that one Western Conference Finals appearance the peak? You have 500 career double-doubles, are averaging over 20 and 10 for the eighth consecutive season and have so little to show for it. All that sweat, all that frustration, for what? In an upcoming ad campaign, you're going to be portrayed by Adidas as a movie star, playing numerous roles and showing off a little personality, no doubt enhancing your profile. However, you know very well that enhancing your profile in the only world you care about occurs in June, on the floor. It's time to turn up the volume on your displeasure, because your current situation isn't going to get you there. Dear Tracy McGrady, do yourself a favor and hang up the sneaks for the rest of the season. Dedicate yourself to getting the back problems under control, conserve a half-season of needless wear and tear to extend your career, and pick yourself up a higher quality of a teammate next season. Worked for David Robinson down the road in San Antonio, no? No one is saying that Tim Duncan is available in the upcoming draft, but considering your team is going to make an unexpected stop in the lottery, why not maximize the chance of finding a gem. Take the rest of the year off, allow Yao Ming to become the focal point once he returns, and see what develops during the offseason. Perhaps a talented wing like UConn's Rudy Gay can aid the cause. Perhaps Gonzaga's Adam Morrison can do his Larry Bird replication by your side. What do you think of Texas' LaMarcus Aldridge, a Chris Bosh-type who would look really good next to Yao? It's all possible, that and renewed health, if you just suppress the desire to return this season and worry about healing the body. Dear Stephon Marbury, sit back and enjoy this resurgence. Breathe it in, really let it sink in. Larry Brown is helping you. The Knicks are the kings of New York. This is what you've always wanted. Now, write yourself a note to capture this moment and make it last. You can kid yourself and say you're just doing what you've always done, but c'mon man, the Knicks are taking your lead, and it's because you're leading. This five-game win streak has nothing to do with shot selection, comments about being the "best point guard in the league", or any other nonsense -- it's about harboring the will to win. That's always been the knock on you: You put up numbers, embarrass defenders, yet win nothing. Mediocrity has essentially been associated with every team you've played for, possibly as a curse for leaving Garnett the way you did. However, New York is where you wanted to be, and now you're there, and now Brown is there, and you can help one another succeed. Look at your numbers in January: 26 points, nine assists per game. That's what elite point guards produce, but yet, take them as just numbers. Over your career, you've averaged 20 points and eight assists, yet they've been empty figures. What you're doing now is making winning plays. Every one of your numbers has been necessary. Mandatory. You're winning now, and you're making it happen. You're making kids like David Lee and Channing Frye succeed. You're leading. That's what point guards do. That's what people say has eluded you. That's what is going to get you the respect you haven't received. Breathe it in and never let it go. Dear Antoine Walker, make the most of your second chance. Here's the gist of Walker's situation: His arrival is trumpeted in Miami as a three-time All-Star arriving to fortify a championship run. He then slumps and struggles to find his place, toiling in a reserve role for the first time. Fans are wondering what all the hype was about, especially when Walker is firing up the occasional 1-for-13 and 0-for-10 shooting night. Well, Walker can be a darling again. He's still coming off the bench, but new coach Pat Riley, who pulled the trigger to bring him aboard in the first place, is letting him play his favored position. Rookie Wayne Simien will now see reserve minutes at power forward while Walker plays primarily behind James Posey. Over the past three games, he's knocked down 22-of-36 shots, including 11-of-18 3-pointers. Let's stop pussy-footing around the truth: Walker lives to shoot. He's getting that opportunity now. Make the most of it and avoid being a high-profile bust. Dear Deron Williams, remember what brought you to this point in your career. You're a rookie, the first point guard taken in a draft stocked with them, and you were selected primarily because of your savvy, your winning pedigree, your ability to come through in the clutch and the cool you displayed in doing so. It never seemed like you were ever forcing the issue. Why then, does it look like you're forcing the issue as a pro? In fairness, Andrei Kirilenko was injured for a while and the Jazz were a tad depleted, but there was no reason for him to be putting up 15 shots a game when his reputation is that of a pass-first point guard. He's not a strong 3-point shooter yet, proven by an 8-for-35 showing during December in which he missed 19 of his last 21 attempts. It's no coincidence that he's been relegated to a reserve role behind undrafted third-year guard Keith McLeod. There's no doubt he's the best floor general on the roster, but Jerry Sloan is sending him the message that he has to operate it correctly. Already people are wondering whether the Jazz made the mistake and took the wrong guard given what Chris Paul is doing. That's not fair, as Williams has the talent to back up Utah's choice. He just has to go back to his roots to do so. If he smells the coffee, he can prove that on the playoff stage, where Paul most assuredly won't be.